Quote Originally Posted by burt
Sorry for the confusion. On my Sony STR-DE695 AV receiver, there is a "monitor" area that has a composite "video out" and a "s-video out". After i hookup my VCR and DVD into the receiver, do I then run lines from that "monitor section" on my receiver to the video inputs of my T.V.?

thanks,
Burt
That's right Burt. HOWEVER there are a lot of other things that you should be aware of. Only some of which I'll attempt to enlighten you on, and strongly suggest that you get the in depth details from your AVR and TV owners manuals.

Each device (VCR, DVD) has different ouputs, you run those video outputs to the corresponding video inputs on the AVR.

You run the AUDIO cable output from each of those devices to the corresponding AUDIO inputs on the AVR.

You run the COMPOSITE and S-VIDEO outputs from the AVR to the TV.

Now we're are comming to crunch .......

Some TVs can only handle one input, even though there may be more than one connection (I have several inputs on my TV, however some take priority over others depending on how you connect it up). Depending on the TV if it detects a signal on a certain input, it will never recognize or look at the other input.
You might be able to run composite to source 1 and s-video to source 2, and or ANT 1 and ANT 2 -- depends on your TV.
CHECK your TV Owners manual for how your set works.

Now then - couple all that with this. Depending on your AVR, if you only run Composite to the TV (say cause that's all your tv can handle) then inputs feed into the AVR on the S-Video inputs will never be sent to the TV even though on the AVR you have selected as the source the S-Video input because the AVR does not switch the S-Video input over onto the Composite (or visa versa for that matter).
Read your AVR Owners manual to understand what, if any video switching takes place in the AVR.

And when you think you understand it, read it 2 more times, sometimes you have to let this stuff sink in before you get the picture (no pun intended) :-) well ok, maybe a lil bit

Some AVR (like the Denon 3803 and Yamaha 1400 as examples) will switch ALL video inputs onto the component output so you can handle all of your source selections right at the AVR and only have to run a single component cable from the AVR over to the TV.

IMO this is most desirable as I never have to switch or adjust anything on the TV - set it and forget it :-)

Hope this helps